Promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s in talks with Jake Paul’s adviser and co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), Nakisa Bidarian, about putting a fight together with Anthony Joshua.
Hearn says that if AJ is going to have a “runout fight,” he views a clash against Jake Paul as a good option for “a lot of money.” It makes sense financially, as there would be a significant amount of interest, thanks to Paul’s massive social media following and his marketing skills.
Hearn wants to get the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) out before the end of 2025 to prepare him for a world title fight in 2026 or the long-awaited matchup against Tyson Fury.
Jake Paul’s popularity
- YouTube: 20.9 million subscribers
- Instagram: 28.7 million followers
- X (Twitter): 4.6 million followers
- TikTok: 18.5 million followers
It could backfire on Hearn, as Jake, 28, is younger than the 36-year-old Joshua and possesses world-level punching power in his right hand. If he detonates one of his shots on AJ’s chin, he ruins his dreams of fighting against Fury or another world title run once and for all.
Hearn Confirms Conversations
“There’s been some conversations between myself and Nikisa. I think Jake and AJ have spoke as well,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing about his interest in setting up a fight between Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul next. “From our point of view, if we’re going to have a runout fight, why not have a runout against Jake Paul for a lot of money?”
From a logical standpoint, it’s a smart move for Joshua and Hearn to fight Jake Paul in December, using him as a tune-up, while making a lot of money in the process.
Hearn already said that the idea is to choose someone for an undercard assignment. However, a fight between Joshua and Paul wouldn’t be a typical undercard match. There will be too much fan interest to stow that fight away on an undercard.
“So, there are ongoing conversations. I can’t tell you they’re close. I can’t tell you we’ve seen a contract,” said Hearn about the Joshua vs. Paul negotiations. “But if he genuinely wants to fight Anthony, I wouldn’t see why he wouldn’t have a chance to do that fight.”
“Our focus is on a charge for the heavyweight world championship and a charge at Tyson Fury. We can’t control that either. Absolutely, at the moment, anything is possible,” said Hearn.
There’s not a lot of time for Matchroom to negotiate a fight between Joshua and Paul. With December just a month away, Hearn would need to bang out a deal between them rapidly for the mega-fight to happen in December.
Jake Paul’s Knockout Threat
It’s a fight that could turn out to be a disaster for Joshua because he’s coming off a devastating fifth-round knockout against Daniel Dubois on September 21, 2024, and he’ll have been out of the ring for 15 months by the time he faces Paul in December 2025. Further, Joshua is 36, and he has a lot of miles on the odometer from his 12-year professional career.
Losing to Jake Paul will likely send Joshua into retirement. There would be no reason for him to continue fighting at that point. He’s only hanging around now with the hope of fighting Fury and winning another world title.
Last August, Bidarian made it known that a fight between Joshua and Jake Paul was merely a matter of “hitting, ‘go.'” This could be the time to make it, provided they can negotiate a deal fast enough to squeeze the fight in before the end of the year.
